Lilli Gruber says she would never join Net TV or Super 1

Lilli Gruber, one of the most popular faces on Italian television, has now taken a new role as member of the European Parliament in Brussels. Ivan Camilleri catches up with her.

"After more than 20 years there the decision to leave the Italian state television was a painful one. I left what is considered to be the most prestigious position in television, presenting the prime time news of the leading television station in Italy - Rai One."

Asked about the reason for leaving, her answer was surprising, as I thought political interference in public broadcasting took place only in Malta.

"Frankly, I really couldn't take it any more. I had passed through three long years of Rai being controlled by the government, especially Rai One. I really couldn't see any chance to fight any longer the intrusion of the government party in our news bulletins."

According to Ms Gruber the situation really worsened following the election of Silvio Berlusconi as Italy's Prime Minister. Mr Berlusconi is the founder and owner of the Italian private media empire of Mediaset, controlling three national TV stations and a number of newspapers and periodicals apart from having other vast business interests in other sectors.

Ms Gruber said the manipulation of the news at Rai became so evident she had no other option but to resign.

"I just couldn't allow myself to be seen any longer on the 8 p.m. news bulletin. It became so biased and full of manipulation of what was happening in our country."

Can she give examples? The former anchorwoman was quick in her answer.

"There are different ways of exerting political influence on a news programme. I am not saying this has not happened before. Rai has always been a favourite object of desire to different Italian governments but never has it been as heavy handed as at present.

"The interference takes various shapes. It starts by choosing the issues you are going to put on the air and basically we had ended up showing a world that really did not exist. For example, for the first time in history we didn't follow the publication of the annual report of our statistics institute which said that the average Italian was poorer, has more problems with his salary than before. This was shocking."

"One night during the news bulletin I referred to a new media law, called the legge Gaspari, as 'the disputed legge Gaspari'. I referred to this law in this way as it was rejected by the Italian President because he thought it was against the Constitution. Following that news bulletin, I got a warning from my editor, who said I was not allowed to say that. You can imagine how many other daily little conflicts were arising. Eventually I resigned."

In 1987, Ms Gruber became the first Italian woman to ever anchor the main TV news bulletin in Italy. She describes this event as historic as "it opened the door to so many other women on Italian TV".

Apart from being an anchor, Ms Gruber was also Rai's special correspondent covering many events making world history. She was there during the fall of the Berlin Wall. She covered two wars in Iraq, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, the Pope's visit to the Palestinian territories and the events of 9/11 in New York and Washington. She considers herself very lucky "being at the right place at the right time".

Since last June, Ms Gruber changed her career completely and became one of the most independent politicians in the European Parliament.

Though she sits with the Socialist Group, she is considered to be an independent. During the elections, her television fame seemed to help significantly. In fact, she polled more than 1,200,000 first preferences, beating Mr Berlusconi's performance in the general elections in the regions she contested.

"Television helps a lot in politics because you don't have the big obstacle of working to get the people to know you. However, people are not going to vote only for a pretty face on TV."

Ms Gruber was completely new to the political arena because when she was a journalist she never took part in politics. She was asked several times during her career to join one of the Italian political parties but she always refused.

"I would never have done it because I was a journalist and I believed that as a journalist in the public service you should not be part of party politics. I was not pushed by any political party when I joined Rai and so I really wanted to make it clear that I had to be independent in order to be reliable."

Mr Gruber said there had to be a clear distinction between journalism and politics.

Asked for her opinion about the situation in Malta, where the two main political parties own their television stations, employ journalists and provide their news bulletins, Ms Gruber said she would never want to work in one of such stations.

"I would have never done it because I am a free spirit and I cannot stand the idea that I have to write keeping always in mind that you have to toe the party line."

Although being a politician for the past few months has changed her life, Ms Gruber argues that she can never stop being a journalist. "I try to be a journalist all the time. I am still writing books and in my work here in Brussels I still try to do some journalistic stints."

Following her election, Ms Gruber became president of the European Parliament's delegation to the Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the United Emirates, Yemen and Iraq. She is also a member of the foreign affairs committee where she is shadow rapporteur on Iraq. In addition, she sits on the civil liberties committee, which had led to Rocco Buttiglione not being named EU commissioner.

"I don't miss television... sometimes I miss journalism and the way journalism works which is exactly the contrary of how the Parliament works.

"When you are a TV journalist you work like a dog and you see the results right away. Here you work a lot and the results will only bear fruit, if they ever do, in years' time... which could be frustrating."

Ms Gruber is not the only ex-journalist turned MEP. She is one of 50. In fact, Ms Gruber is also trying to form an inter-group organisation embracing all the former journalists/MEPs from all the different political parties.

Her priorities for the next five years are two: to work for more freedom of the press in Europe and to follow closely the political developments in the Gulf region.

As to her future in politics, Ms Gruber is non-committal. To my question about her future involvement in Italian politics she answers very diplomatically: "You can never exclude anything in life!"